Brinkop continues its success at the Pre-Sunshine Tour in Vejer de la Frontera

Although there were no further victories, there were various placings, including in the two Grand Prix. On Saturday, the “small grand prix” of the CSI2* tour over 1.40 meters awaited the Sunshine Tour participants. Kendra Claricia Brinkop had saddled up the ten-year-old Hunter’s Scendro daughter Que Passa de Regor. She took over the reins of the mare from Belgian rider Andres Verdecke in the summer of 2024. Last year, the pair were already placed over 1.50 meters, but then the mare took a longer break over the green season before returning to the show ring in Lier at the beginning of December. With second place in yesterday’s Grand Prix, she showed at her second show after the break of several months that she has not forgotten anything.

The winner here was an old acquaintance: the now 17-year-old Diamant de Semilly son Volver de la Vigne under Portugal’s António Matos Almeida. The pair competed at the European Championships in Rotterdam in 2019, so they have already jumped over the highest levels. Volver de la Vigne then had several new riders, first Philipp Weishaupt, then the Arab Kamal Abdullah Bahamdan, then his compatriot Bader Alfa, briefly the Brit Samuel Hutton and even more briefly the Swede Olivia Kinneson and Italy’s Vittoria Minnisgallo. Volver de la Vigne only returned to Almeida in 2025. Yesterday was the first victory since then and therefore a particularly valuable one, even if it was “only” over 1.40 meters.

Grand prize number two

For the actual Grand Prix of the weekend over 1.45 meters, Kendra Claricia Brinkop had placed her bet on the now nine-year-old Replay van’t Paradijs, like the Leipzig World Cup winner Iashin Sitte by Steve Guerdat, a son of Bamako de Muze. The stallion is a real Stephex horse. After attracting attention as a five-year-old with outstanding rounds at the World Championships for young show jumpers, Emilie Conter initially took over the reins as the daughter of the family. Replay was then briefly ridden by Frederike Staack and Brinkop has been in his saddle since the fall of 2024. She rode him as a seven-year-old at the World Championships, but missed out on a place in the final after a knockdown. Instead, they collected various other placings, including in Grand Prix competitions. Today they finished second, the stallion’s best placing at this level to date.

The pair were only beaten by Sasha Barte from Switzerland on Essenar High Hopes. Also placed: Emelie Pieper on Come to me in fourth place, Kühner-Srallreiter Helmut Schönstetter with De Luxe de Plaisir in ninth place after two faults in the jump-off and Jens Baackmann on Ay Caramba Z, who missed out on the jump-off after three time faults in the round and finished eleventh.

Incidentally, the latter placed directly behind the winning stallion of the 2018 Oldenburg Stallion Days, Cavoiro-H OLD. The now eleven-year-old son of Casallco, who was once brought into the sport by Tobias Meyer, now jumps under the Belgian flag with Roy van Beek, qualified for the jump-off but was withdrawn.

And once again To Me-K van Kattenheye

Kendra Claricia Brinkop owes much of her success this weekend to the seven-year-old Van Gogh daughter To Me K-van Kattenheye. This mare won the first two jumping competitions for seven-year-olds. She was also clear in the final today, but not quite as fast. This time she finished fifth.

Incidentally, Roy van Beek was in action in the seven-year-old class with another old acquaintance from Vechta, the top prize winner of the 2021 stallion market, Cha-Cha-H by Chacco-Blue. Chacco-Blue out of the dam of Halifax van het Kluizebos. The pair finished eighth in the final with no penalties.

All results from Vejer de la Frontera.